Genealogy, DNA for ancestry, Norfolk prehistory, and East Anglian archaeology. A private journal left open.

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The above image I took recently at the medieval festival in Bayeux, France. My great great great grandfather, Henry Shawers is described as a narrow lace or trimming weaver. Does the above represent his trade well? Here I'm going to record all of the evidence so far for Henry, who I believe, is the first non-English ancestor that I have discovered, out of 490 direct ancestors, researched for over 25 years.

I'm going to present the evidence in a time line.

1826-1828

1827 +/- 1 year, The approximate birth year of Henry Shawers, in Switzerland. His father was a coppersmith named John Shawers. Their names have most likely been anglicised with immigration. Henry was illiterate. Their surname could for example, have been: Soruhes, Schwarz, Schwares, Shaers, Souers, Seuers, Scherrais, Shavier, Cerrier, or Soyers

1829183018311832183318341835

1835-10-11 (Oct 11th), Elizabeth Durran, born in this year, was baptised at Deddington, Oxfordshire.

183618371838183918401841

1841-06-06 (Jun 6th), 1841 Census of England & Wales. No sign of John Shawers or his son Henry. Elizabeth Durran was 5 years old, living in Deddington, Oxfordshire. Henry would have been about age 14.

1842184318441845184618471848184918501851

1851-03-30 (Mar 30th), 1851 Census of England & Wales. No sign of Henry Shawers. Elizabeth Durran was age 15, still living with her parents and siblings in Deddington, Oxfordshire.

1852

1852-08-11 (Aug 8th), passengers on the Lord Warden, disembarked at Folkestone docks. The ship had carried them across the Channel from Boulogne, in France. The List of Aliens recorded as arriving with this ship included a Monsieur Shawers, recorded as having French nationality. Unfortunately all of the passengers had their occupations lazily recorded as Gents, but I wonder, not a lot of immigrants coming into the country by the name of Shawers, and only five years before our Henry married Elizabeth Durran in Bethnal Green.

18531854185518561857

1857-09-20 (Sept 20th), Henry Shawers married Elizabeth Durran at St Philip, Bethnal Green, London. I have the GRO Certificate copy. I also see the church register entry on Ancestry.com. They tally. He stated:

He was a bachelor, and age 31, born about 1826.

He was living with Elizabeth at Banner Square, London

He was a Narrow Weaver.

His father was called John Shawers who was a Coppersmith.

He signed X - he was illiterate. Elizabeth, age 22, was a spinster and also signed X

Henry Shawers recorded as Narrow weaver of fringe and trimmings journeyman.

1862-10-31 (31st Oct), Henry Shawers is imprisoned at Wandsworth Prison, London with a sentence of one month, for the offence of begging. I found this on a digitilised image of the Prison Register at FindMyPast.co.uk.

Henry Shawers was a Lace Weaver

He was age 34, born about 1828

Height five feet, two and three quarter inches. Grey eyes, fresh complexion, no marks. Weight, a eight stone, ten pounds.

He was a vagrant, no address.

He was registered as F born. Foreign born, not British Empire judging by other entries in the register.

His crime was begging.

He was illiterate.

He was Christian.

He was sentenced at Wandsworth, London, by C Dayman, magistrate.

1863

1863-05-15 (May 15th) Second son, William Henry Shawers died at Bletchingley, Surrey. I have his GRO birth certificate. Son of Henry Shawers and Elizabeth. He was recorded as 1 years old. His cause of death was ?Caucrumous? certified. See his burial which states Small Pox.

Henry Shawers was a Trimming Weaver

Registered by mother, Elizabeth, present at death.

1863-05-18 (May 18th) Second son, William Henry Shawers was buried at Bletchingley, St Mary, Surrey. Found on Ancestry.com including digitilised image of registry. William Henry Shawers was recorded as "a stranger's child', 13 months old at death. Buried in the north side of the grave yard. Died of Small Pox. A number of burials at that time, both child and adult were recorded as Small Pox.

They had moved south, out of London.

"A stranger's child" could refer either to the family being on the move, travelling, or alternatively hint that the father was a foreigner.

1864

1864-11-07 (Nov 7th), Third son, Arthur Henry Shawers was born at 11 Thomas Street, St Peter, Brighton, Sussex. I have the GRO birth certificate. The son of Henry Shawers and Elizabeth (nee Durran).

Henry Shawers was a Trimming weaver Journeyman.

Registered by mother, Elizabeth of 11 Thomas Street, Brighton.

They were living at 11 Thomas Street, St Peter, Brighton, Sussex on the South Coast. In 1871 on the census, 11 Thomas Street is full of tenants and appears to be a lodging house in Brighton.

1865

1865-04-06 (Apr 6th), Third son Arthur Henry Shawers died at Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex. I have a copy of the GRO death certificate.

Sometime during the winter of 1864/5, they had moved from Brighton on the south coast, up to Enfield, north of London.

1874

187518771878187918801881

1876

1881-04-03 (Apr 3rd), 1881 census of England & Wales. I cannot find Henry. I find his wife and daughter, living as Elizabeth and Rosa S Hayes. Now they are in service, in Fulham, London, working for a middle class Portuguese family.

Elizabeth states that she is married. She is now 45 years old. No sign of Henry Shawers or a Mr Hayes.

They are both working as servants. Rosa S Hayes (Elizabeth Rosina Shawers, my great great grandmother) is 22 years old.

Elizabeth is described as a widow of "Henry, an Actor". Is this a Henry Hayes, the "sailor", or some sort of referral to Henry Shawers?

1915

1915-12-01 (Dec 1st), Elizabeth Hayes dies. I have the GRO death certificate.

Age 80 years.

Died of senile chronic bronchitis

Death registered by her daughter E.R Brooker in attendance at 31 Caradoc Street.

Addressed to 78 Cold Bath Street, Lewisham.

Records that she was "Widow of Henry Hayes (an actor".

Henry and Elizabeth's son, my great grandfather, John Henry Brooker, was in the Royal Field Artillery at this time.

John Henry Brooker and partner Mabel, at Sheerness, Kent, in 1933. John was the only grandson of Henry Shawers.

Conclusions

Henry Shawers, Henrich Schwarez, Henri Cherrais, or whatever name that he was born with, was a 19th century lace weaving immigrant from Switzerland, into the East End of London. He was illiterate, a christian, and he suffered terrible poverty during his life in England. He was short and slight, only around 5 ft 2" (158 cm) tall, with a fair complexion, no marks, and perhaps grey-blue eyes. He may have been the Monsieur Shawers that arrived from Boulogne, France, at Folkestonedocks in 1852. He met and married a young woman from rural Oxfordshire, a tailor's daughter named Elizabeth Durran in Bethnal Green, close to the Spitalfields weaving centre of London's East End.

Their first child was a daughter that they named Elizabeth Rosina Shawers - known as "Rosa". She was to be their only child to survive infant hood to adulthood. My great great grandmother Brooker, born on Pownall Road, Haggerstone, London, during September 1858. A second child, a son named after his father, Henry Shawers the junior, was also born at Pownall Road in January 1860. I don't see the family settle again after this date. In April 1861, they were living in Islington.

During early April, 1862, they were now living in Waterloo, south of the bridge in Central London. Their second son, William, was born there. I believe that their first son Henry, had already passed away by this time.

Weaving was in decline in the removal of protectionism, the rise of the power loom, and factory production. Henry survived by specialising in the lace trimmings and fringes, perhaps of dresses and skirts. But it wasn't easy. He resorted to begging, a crime of poverty that was punished by a spell in Wandsworth prison that October.

Something made them move south, out of London. Was it an attempt to return to the Continent? Perhaps visit a relative of Henry's on the South Coast, a work opportunity, or were they pushed by the gruelling poverty and disease? Their second son William, was buried it appears, on this journey, from small pox, and was buried "a stranger's child" in the Surrey village of Bletchingley.

They ended up for a while in a lodging house on the South Coast in Brighton. Their third son Arthur, was born there. Then they moved northwards again over the winter of 1864 / 1865. In early April, 1865, they were now living at Baker Street, Enfield, to the north of London. Arthur, age five months died there of pneumonia. Their third son. The third to die as an infant. Only their daughter, Elizabeth Rosina Shawers still survived.

I don't see them as a family again after the death of Arthur in Enfield, 1865.

Then in July 1873, a Henry "Sayers", a lace maker of very similar physical description, born about the same time, appears briefly in Wandsworth Prison, for being "drunk on the highway". It sounds so much like our Henry - and he was foreign born, only this record him as "born in Switzerland". This correlates to Henry Sohures born in Switzerland on the 1861 census.

That's the last possible sighting of Henry on record. He evaded the 1871 English census. I can't find his death or burial.

As for his wife Elizabeth, she continued to live under the name Elizabeth Hayes for many years at her daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth Rosina and Henry Brooker's home in the Deptford then Lewisham area. Shortly before her death in Greenwich workhouse during 1915, her daughter recorded for her, that she was the widow of Henry, an Actor. A final puzzle to her life story. Was this really a Henry Hayes, or was it Henry Shawers? Why actor?